London's Garden Bridge in Peril as Mayor Halts Works

London mayor Sadiq Khan may well be about to bring the controversial public/private Garden Bridge to an abrupt halt, as he's ordered some initial structural planning work to be put on hold pending new calculations on whether additional taxpayer money might be needed to make the project happen.

While Khan's official position is on the Yes/Build It side of things, there are some conditions attached to his approval -- specifically that no more than the £60m of public money already earmarked to pay for part of the £175m total build cost is needed. That seems to be a bit of a sticking point at the moment, as Transport for London is currently in the process of approving the spending of a £3m chunk needed for structural works at Temple Tube station.

A spokesperson for the mayor's office told the Architect's Journal that: "This enabling work has since been suspended, and that will be reported to the [TfL] Finance and Policy Committee today. Sadiq Khan has been clear that no new public funds should be committed to the Garden Bridge, and he has pledged to make the project more open and transparent -- standards that were not always met under the previous administration." [Architect's Journal via Guardian]